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Ahmet Tevfik Pasha
|birth_place = Istanbul (then Constantinople), Ottoman Empire |death_date = |death_place = Istanbul, Turkey |party = Committee of Union and Progress |monarch = Abdülhamit II|monarch2 = Mehmet VI|monarch3 = Mehmet VI}} Ahmet Tevfik Pasha (February 11, 1845 – October 8, 1936) ( , Ahmet Tevfik Okday after the Surname Law of 1934) was the last Ottoman grand vizier.İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971 (Turkish) He held the office three times, the first April 13, 1909 to May 5, 1909 under Abdulhamid II, and from November 11, 1918 to March 3, 1919, and from October 21, 1920 to November 4, 1922 under Mehmed V Reşad during the Allied occupation of Istanbul. Biography Ahmet Tevfik was born on February 11, 1845 in Istanbul. His father, Ferik Ismail Pasha, was a Crimean Tatar descended from the Giray dynasty.Kalyoncu, Cemal A. "Son Sadrazamın Torunu." Aksiyon 20 Nov. 1999: n. pag. Son Sadrazamın Torunu. Aksiyon.com.tr, 20 Nov. 1999. Web. 01 Sept. 2013. . Ahmet Tevfik entered military service but left after becoming a junior officer, entering government bureaucracy training. After 1872, he held various foreign ministry posts. After serving as an ambassador in Rome, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Athens, he served as the Ottoman chargé d'affaires and ambassador to Germany in Berlin from 1885 to 1895. After returning to Istanbul, he served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Turkish: Hariciye Nazırı) from'' 1899 to 1909. After the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Era in 1908, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha was appointed to a seat in the revived (Turkish: ''Ayan Meclisi), the upper house of the also-revived parliament, the General Assembly (Turkish: Meclis-i Mebusan). While serving as chargé d'affaires in Athens, he met and married Elisabeth Tschumi, a Swiss woman working as a governess to the children of another diplomat. They had five children together. First term as grand vizier Ahmet Tevfik Pasha's first period of office as grand vizier was one of the direct outcomes of the failed counterrevolutionary 31 March Incident (which actually occurred on April 13) in 1909. When the absolutists declared the countercoup, they demanded and received the resignation of the previous grand vizier Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha. Although their preferred replacement was not Ahmet Tevfik Pasha, his appointment at least fulfilled their demands for the removal of Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha.[http://www.historystudies.net/Makaleler/1032731722_Necati%20Cavdar%20-%204.pdf Necati Çavdar, Siyasi Denge Unsuru Olarak 31 Mart Vakasında Ahmet Tevfik Paşa Hükümeti, History Studies, Samsun, Mart 2011] Ahmet Tevfik Pasha, who had only reluctantly taken up the post at the urging of the pro-absolutist sultan Abdülhamid II, formed a government made up of mostly non-partisan and neutral members and took precautions to limit the growth of violence that had begun in Istanbul and Adana. After the Hareket Ordusu (English: Army of Action) entered Istanbul and restored the constitutional government, and Abdülhamid II was deposed, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha resigned and Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha returned as grand vizier. Second term as grand vizier After World War I and the resignation of Ahmet Izzet Pasha, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha was again appointed grand vizier on November 11, 1918. Two days after his term began, the Allies began their occupation of Istanbul. The Allies pressured sultan Mehmet VI to dissolve parliament on December 21, 1918, and for a few weeks, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha's government was dissolved as well. He formed his government again on January 12, 1919, but after the invaders forced him to dissolve it once more, he resigned as grand vizier on March 3, 1919.[http://www.ataturk.net/kronoloji/1919.html Atatürk.net sitesi Atatürk ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Kronoloisi 1919 yılı, Access date: June 24, 2011] Paris Peace Conference After his second term as grand vizier, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha became the head of the (which had not yet been dissolved, unlike the lower house). He then served as the president of the Ottoman delegation to the Paris Peace Conference ending World War I. Ahmet Tevfik Pasha's delegation refused the heavy terms of the proposed treaty, but another delegation sent by the Grand Vizier Damat Ferit Pasha accepted the terms and signed the Treaty of Sevres.Turktarih.net sitesi Paris Barış Konferansı maddesi, Access date: June 24, 2011 Third term as grand vizier On October 21, 1920, he was once more appointed grand vizier, replacing Damat Ferit Pasha. Meanwhile, the Turkish National Movement had established another government in Ankara, proclaiming itself to be the sole government of the nation and rejecting the sultanate. Ahmet Tevfik Pasha offered the nationalist Ankara government to join his monarchical Istanbul government to form one body at the Conference of London in 1921. However, the leader in Ankara, Mustafa Kemal, refused the offer, and the two governments sent separate delegations to the conference, with Ahmet Tevfik Pasha himself leading the Istanbul delegation and Bekir Sami Kunduh leading the Ankara delegation. However, once he arrived in London, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha, in a surprising move, proclaimed that the Ankara government indeed was the sole rightful government of Turkey and allowed Bekir Sami to be the only representative at the conference. After the abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate on November 1, 1922, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha met with his government. With the sultan Mehmet VI gone and unable to find a reason to hold their offices any longer, the government began to resign one by one, and Ahmet Tevfik Pasha resigned three days after the abolition on November 4, 1922. Later life and death After the 1934 Surname Law, he adopted the last name "Okday." He died on October 8, 1936 in Istanbul and is interred at the Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery. His biography, written by his grandson Şefik Okday, was published in 1986 and is titled "My Grandfather, the Last Grand Vizier, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha" (Turkish: Büyükbabam Son Sadrazam Ahmet Tevfik Paşa). See also * List of Ottoman Grand Viziers References External links * Category:Honorary Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India Category:1845 births Category:1936 deaths Category:Burials at Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery Category:20th-century Ottoman Grand Viziers Category:Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire Category:Ambassadors of the Ottoman Empire to Germany Category:Ambassadors of the Ottoman Empire to Greece Category:Ambassadors of the Ottoman Empire to the United Kingdom Category:Ambassadors of the Ottoman Empire to Russia Category:Ambassadors of the Ottoman Empire to Austria-Hungary Category:Ambassadors of the Ottoman Empire Category:Turkish people of Crimean Tatar descent Category:People from Istanbul